


Bad Blood

by cordeliadelayne



Category: Primeval
Genre: Drama, Friends or Enemies?, Gen, Life at the ARC, Light Angst, Psychological issues, Stephen has good friends, Stephen trying to get back to work after his injuries, Stephen-centric, Tension among the workplace, Trying to remake friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 08:05:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6365965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cordeliadelayne/pseuds/cordeliadelayne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stephen's back at work after facing down Helen's menagarie, but tensions are still running high. Exactly what <i>do</i> you do when the person you'd take a bullet for is the one behind the trigger?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Stephen paused and slowly turned around. Nothing there. He must be imagining things. It had been a stressful week and now he was just letting everything get to him.

He turned around quickly again – definitely a sound that time.

“Cutter?” he asked, surprised. “When did you-” Then he noticed the gun in Cutter's hand and couldn’t have been more surprised. “Cutter – Nick, I know we haven't been seeing eye to eye lately, but trust me, shooting me isn't the answer.”

Stephen moved his hands up slowly, trying not to spook the other man. He didn't seriously believe that Cutter would shoot him, but even so, who knew exactly what he'd been put through this week.

“Nick, please, just talk to me.”

Stephen took a step forward, just as the gun went off.

**Four Days Previously – Monday**

The real problem with Helen Cutter was that no matter what she did and how badly she hurt him, Stephen couldn't hate her. He supposed it was because she had been his first - first woman he'd truly loved, first woman he'd had sex with, first woman he'd trusted with his past. He'd even been planning on, if not asking her to marry him exactly, then in suggesting they could build a life together.

Part of him did regret not getting to know Nick in those early days of his studies though. If he had known Cutter as a person, rather than just as the man that Helen was married to, he couldn’t help but think that he would have never let her get her claws into him. He would have said no and he would have meant it, would have done what he should have done and reported Helen for abusing her position. He was almost, completely, positive that's what he would had done.

He sighed and took a sip of tea now gone cold and tasteless. Maybe he was just kidding himself. Maybe Helen's pull would have been so great that he wouldn't have been able to turn her away. He hadn’t told her to get lost when she'd turned up at the university had he? When she'd shown him how easily he could be taken out by her predatory claws. And that was after years of knowing Cutter, of sometimes waking up in the night and thinking that his secret was unbearable but necessary, because Cutter was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

None of this was helping him get in the mood for going back into the office. Things had been, well, strained didn't really cover it. Everyone was slightly off with him, even now, and he wasn't sure what he could do about that. They weren't as bad as they had been before his leg and back had been clawed by the raptor in Helen's menagerie, and he'd caught a stray bullet in the arm from one of the rescue team (no one had admitted to having shot him, but Stephen had his suspicions about the new boy, Becker). But they were still bad enough that Monday morning was a terribly depressing reality.

The door bell rang, effectively pulling him back into the present and away from his maudlin thoughts. He wasn't expecting any packages but he trundled down his stairs to the front door anyway. When he opened the door he was surprised to find Tom Ryan standing on his doorstep.

“Tom? What are - “

“My first day back too,” Ryan said. “Figured you could do with some company.”

Despite himself, Stephen found that he was smiling. “Thanks. Got time for a cuppa?”

“Sure.”

Ryan followed Stephen back up the stairs. Stephen had to admit he looked good, the facial scars were barely visible, and if Stephen didn’t know to look for the slight limp he'd never have known it was there.

“We make a right pair, don't we?” Ryan asked.

Stephen smiled. “Yeah. We should form a club.” He made fresh tea for them both and moved around his kitchen, putting dirty pots into the sink for later.

Ryan moved around up to the bookcases and took down a photo of Stephen and Cutter in black tie, from some university awards do they'd been forced to attend.

“Have you spoken to him much?”

Stephen felt himself tensing up and tried to tell himself to relax. “Sure.” He didn't need to turn around to know that Ryan was making a face at his back.

“ _Stephen._ ”

Stephen resisted the urge to turn around. “Shall we just get going?”

* * * *

The ride to the ARC was made in silence. Stephen didn't want to fall out with Ryan, but he also didn't want to talk to him about Cutter. It was bad enough that they were going to face each other after....after...

He pulled the car into an abrupt stop before they reached the car park. Ryan didn’t say anything and Stephen just sat there, staring at the ARC.

“I'm an idiot,” Stephen said eventually.

Ryan hummed non-committally.

“I mean, I thought after the cage room, things would be better. That it would just go back...”

“You can never go back,” Ryan said. He twisted in his seat so he could get a better look at Stephen. “He did visit you, didn't he? In the hospital?”

Stephen nodded. “He did. But, it was making me so uncomfortable...”

“You sent him away,” Ryan guessed.

“I didn't mean for him to stay away all together. Just, a little while. And I never called him. And he never called me. And, I don't know what I'm going to face when I go in there.”

“Now's as good a time as any to find out.”

Stephen sighed, and re-started the car. “I hate it when you're right.”

* * * * *

Before Stephen could put his plan of talking to Cutter into action, the whole team were called in to a meeting with Lester. Jenny had moved them to one of the large conference rooms with the best view of the surroundings out of the floor to ceiling windows. It was already getting stuffy in there and Stephen fiddled nervously with his collar; what he wouldn’t give for this day to be over.

Cutter did a double-take when he saw Stephen, even though he must have known that today was the day both he and Ryan were back on the job. But then Cutter wasn't exactly very good at keeping track of appointments at the best of times.

Abby and Connor greeted him much more affectionately and he chose to sit between them at the table while Cutter was still standing in the doorway.

“In your own time,” Lester said behind Cutter, edging his way past and into the room.

“Sorry,” Cutter murmured and went to sit next to Jenny.

Stephen was amused to see that Becker and Ryan chose seats as far away as possible from each other. This was going to be very interesting.

“If we are all ready?” Lester asked. Cutter moved a little in his seat as if he was going to say something, but Lester's glare put effective paid to that. “I've called you in to discuss the new rota system.”

Stephen frowned. Why did that sound so ominous?

“I've decided it's time we split up our resources in a more effective manner.” He raised a finger in the air that silenced Cutter's objections before they'd begun. “Becker takes point in the field, Ryan here at the ARC. Stephen's injuries require him to be out of the field for at least another six months.” Lester motioned towards Lorraine who started handing out packets of papers. “This makes much more sense for us all.”

They each spent a good few minutes reading the new rota. It did make sense, and was very clearly laid out – Lorraine had obviously put a lot of work into it. Stephen was pleased to see that he was now scheduled to divide his time between helping Abby with the ARC's animals and teaching courses on tracking and firearms safety. He also had something ominously labelled “Research” which he imagined had something to do with Cutter, but decided not to dig too deeply into that for the time being.

“What is this?” Cutter asked. Stephen would swear later that he heard Lester's eyes roll right round in his head.

“We have more personnel now, Cutter. This isn't a two bit operation any more...”

“A two-bit...”

“And we have to make a good impression,” Lester practically shouted, “as our funding is being placed under review.”

Everyone looked up then.

“What?” Jenny asked. “Why am I only just hearing about this now?”

Lester gave a particularly civil servant shrug. “We're exploring other options. In the meantime...”

“What other options?” Ryan asked.

Lester looked like he'd very much wanted to avoid this conversation. “Private enterprise...”

“No,” Cutter said. “Are you? Are you actually joking? Is it April? Private...we are not...Do you understand what is happening here? The world is in very real danger and the government wants private companies to deal with it? Have you all lost your minds?”

“Professor Cutter, if you would please sit down,” Lester said, but it was no good. With a quick glance around the table, Cutter was suddenly leaving the room, though not before he threw his copy of the new rota into the bin.

“Well,” Lester said, to no one in particular, “that went well.”

* * * * *

Even though he very much didn't want to, Stephen was the one who volunteered to go find Cutter. They were, after all, supposed to be best friends. Or something.

He eventually found the other man in the gym, the last place he'd expected to find him and where he only went after a tip off from one of the soldiers.

He would normally have waited a moment before interrupting Cutter, but his leg was really starting to throb from all the walking and he very much needed to sit down.

“I've been looking all over for you,” he said. Then he sat heavily down on one of the benches and stretched his leg out in front of him, wincing as he did so. Cutter kept staring at the floor and didn't notice.

“Nick,” Stephen said, “come on. You've dealt with funding problems before...”

“They've never risked getting anyone killed though, have they?”

Stephen didn't have anything to say to that. Truth was, he didn't feel like he'd had a lot to say to Cutter in a very long time. They'd just been treading water, following old routines, clinging to a truth that had never existed. Maybe he should just cut his losses and leave.

“I can't let Lester do this.”

“I'm not sure that you can stop him. Or why you'd want to.”

Cutter did finally look up at that. “Meaning?”

“Protecting people. Saving lives. Finding a way to stop the anomalies. Those are the things we should be concentrating on. Don't you think?” He waved his arms to encompass the whole of the ARC and carefully braced himself against the pain the movement made to his lower back. “I think it's about time we started picking better battles to fight. Let Lester do what he's good at.”

“Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves?”

“Something like that,” Stephen said. He risked a small smile, which Cutter tentatively returned.

“Maybe you're on to something.” Cutter stood up. “I'll go talk to Jenny about it.”

Stephen forced his face to appear as smooth as a mask; he was sure Cutter hadn't meant anything by it, but once upon a time his advice would have actually meant something.

**Tuesday**

He'd survived Monday. Now he just had to get through the rest of the week. And the week after that. And the month after that. And then....

Stephen crossed off yesterday's date from the calendar in his kitchen and contemplated writing a resignation letter. He wrote “Resign” in big letters on the last day of the month, before he could talk himself out of it. He'd give himself a month to decide if the ARC was the best place for his recovery. If not, well, it wasn't as if he didn't have some transferable skills, and Lester would probably write him a decent enough reference if he needed one.

“Okay, one step at a time, Stephen,” he told himself as the doorbell rang.

“Ready?” Ryan asked as Stephen opened the door.

“Are you planning on doing this every morning?” Stephen asked.

“Yeah.”

A thought occurred to Stephen as he manoeuvred himself into Ryan's car. “Did Lester put you up to this?”

“Lester? No.”

Stephen put his seat belt on with more force than was strictly necessary. “Jenny, then.”

Ryan's silence was answer enough.

* * * * *

“I don't need a babysitter. Or a bodyguard. Or whatever it is you've decided Ryan is.”

Jenny looked up from her computer and gave Stephen a visual once over. Stephen tried not to flinch under her gaze, aware that he was probably a little red faced and was definitely leaning heavily on his uninjured leg.

“Perhaps I thought you needed a friend,” she said after a moment. “Someone who understands what you are going through.” She shifted her chair out from her desk. “Will you please just sit down.”

Stephen had already been berated in the last week by his physio for putting his stubbornness before his recovery, so he did as he was told.

“I'm only trying to help. What you did? It was very brave.”

Stephen would rather she had yelled at him, and shifted uncomfortably.  
  
Jenny got up and motioned for him to follow. “Come on, I could do with a tea break.”

* * * * *

They found Abby in the kitchen, dunking a chocolate digestive into her tea. “Kettle's just boiled,” she told them.

Jenny motioned for Stephen to sit and fixed them both a drink. Stephen sat at Abby's table and tried to resist the urge to rub at his leg.

“How are you doing today?” Abby asked.

Stephen shrugged. They weren't back to the way they had been before Helen's revelations, but sacrificing himself had gone a long way towards making Abby warm to him again.

“I thought we could go over the security of the animal pens today,” Abby said. “I want to see if we can move them around a bit, maybe use the space we have more efficiently. And if you could maybe go over my figures for the food deliveries? Maths isn't my strong point and last month we nearly ran out of fruit for Monty.”

Stephen found himself smiling, which was clearly what Abby had intended. He took his drink from Jenny and nodded his thanks.

“Sounds like you have a plan,” Jenny said. She sat down opposite them. “It's good to have you back, Stephen.”

Abby nodded her agreement. “It really is.”

Stephen ducked his head a little, but nodded. “It's good to be back,” he said. He even almost meant it.

* * * * *

He and Abby poured over plans of the ARC for the rest of the morning, making notes and talking quietly as they tried to find a way for the space, and budget, to let them give the animals they were forced to keep more room to roam. Connor joined them later and they started discussing the possibility of a way to signal the ARC that an anomaly to the right time had opened so they could return one of their animals as quickly as possible.

“This could really work,” Abby said. She finished marking off items from her to-do list. “Now we just have to convince Lester to give us half of the underground parking space.”

“Sounds easy,” Stephen said with a small smile.

* * * * *

And it did turn out to be easy. Despite what they had all imagined. It probably helped that Lester and the mammoth had developed quite a relationship and agreed with their assessment that he needed more space, and more importantly an easy way in and out of the building to get at fresh air and grass without him being overlooked by stray passers-by.

“If he has to stay here, the least we owe him is to make it a comfortable stay,” Lester said.

All geared up for a fight, with statistics and journal references they’d pulled from the internet, Abby and Stephen visibly deflated. If only every argument they got into with Lester ended this easily.

“Thank you,” Abby said after a moment.

Lester smiled, and almost looked human. “Anything I can do to help our furry friends,” he said. “Now, if you could give me a moment with Stephen, please, Miss Maitland.”

Abby quickly glanced at Stephen who nodded. “Okay. See you later?”

“Sure,” Stephen said. He tried to smile, but somehow his facial muscles weren't quite up to the task.

Lester leaned back in his chair and looked over his desk at Stephen. Stephen, used to stares from all sorts of professionals, didn't so much as flinch.

“So, how are you?”

Stephen slowly blinked. “Genuinely concerned or worried I might crack?”

“It can't be both?”

Stephen acknowledged the point with a dip of his head.

Lester made a show of consulting his computer. “You're scheduled to meet with your therapist on Wednesday, aren't you?”

“That's in my file?”

“You're scheduled for Wednesday afternoons off,” Lester said, bristling slightly. Then he deliberately relaxed his shoulders. “Stephen, I'm not actually an ogre. I do care about the people under my supervision.”

“What do you want to know?”

Lester sighed. “This isn't an interrogation. I just wanted to make sure you're receiving the help you need. What you did in the cage room? It showed a lot of courage.”

“It didn't feel very courageous,” Stephen said. “I was...I couldn't let Cutter pay for my mistakes. I wasn't thinking about anything but that. It wasn't some big gesture to protect the world.”

If he were honest with himself that's why he hated the attention; he didn't feel that he deserved it. He'd done an unselfish thing for selfish reasons. There was no getting away from that.

“I understand that you don't want to talk to me, but please make sure you keep your appointment.”

Stephen nodded. He'd made a lot of mistakes in the past year; not trusting Lester had been a pretty big one. Time, perhaps, to make amends.

“I appreciate you letting me return to work like this.” He paused and then took a deep breath. “I think I was starting to lose my mind a little in the hospital. Too much time to think without...analysing it I suppose is how I'll put it to the shrink tomorrow.”

Lester's lips twitched sympathetically. “I have it on good authority they don't like the s word.”

Stephen smiled. “I'll try and remember that.”

* * * * *

Jenny and Abby were making plans for a night out when Stephen sauntered into the kitchen on the look out for another cup of tea. He'd actually been trying to find Cutter, only for Becker to inform him that Cutter had left with Sarah a few hours ago. Becker didn’t offer up any more information and Stephen wasn't sure if that was because he didn’t know or because he didn't trust Stephen. Whichever it was, Stephen wasn't happy about it.

“Do you fancy a drink after work, Stephen?” Abby asked. Since their time together planning the animals new retreat it seemed that Abby was ready to start over.

“Thanks,” Stephen said, “but I, er, actually have homework to do tonight.”

“Homework?” Jenny asked.

“For my shrink appointment tomorrow. She's asked me to keep a dream diary, and there are some other tests I have to do online. She wants to get a baseline reading of me before we meet up tomorrow.”

Jenny nodded. “Well another time, then? I was thinking this would be good for us, a dedicated night out. Within reason, obviously.” This last was spoken with a sigh as the anomaly detector went off.

“I'll see you later,” Stephen shouted over the alarm and watched them hurry out to the Atrium. It was the first alarm since he'd been back at work and he thought he might feel jealous that they were running out to the unknown and he was stuck back at the ARC. Instead he just felt numb.

* * * * *

He never did see Cutter that day.

 

**Wednesday**

When Ryan came around that morning Stephen was prepared with a full English breakfast and a big pot of tea.

“This is your idea of training food, is it?”

Stephen smiled. “I'm meeting my shrink later. I figured a fry up was the least I deserved.”

Ryan nodded in understanding and sat down at the kitchen table.

“If it helps, I've found mine really useful.”

Stephen slowly stirred his tea. “I'm not really one for talking about my problems.”

“And you think I am?” Ryan asked. “Look, mate, this isn't some way to trip you up. This is how you get your head on straight and back in the game. Because frankly, if there was anyone who should have spoken up about his problems, it was you.”

Stephen nodded and took a drink. It was refreshing how easily Ryan spoke his mind and didn’t bother pulling punches.

“I'm going to give it a go,” Stephen said.

Ryan nodded and started eating. He waved his knife at Stephen's plate and Stephen started to eat too. Hard to believe that he'd already settled into such a comfortable routine with someone who wasn't Cutter. Maybe there was life in the old dog yet.

* * * * *

The drive to the ARC was done in silence, but it felt better than it had that first time. Ryan was a good friend.

They arrived at the main gates just as everyone appeared to be leaving on an alert. Jenny pulled up her car next to Stephen's and he quickly wound down the window.

“Epping Forest,” she told them. “I've told Cutter to meet us there.”

“I'll coordinate things this end,” Ryan told her. She nodded and then sped off.

Stephen watched her in the mirror. “Someone's been taking driving lessons from Danny.”

Ryan snorted. “You're not wrong.”

Stephen paused and then turned to look at Ryan. “Jenny and Danny? Danny and Jenny? I thought she was hung up on Cutter?”

“Why should she wait for him to get his head out of his arse? Besides, Danny's not too bad. Winds Becker up perfectly.”

Stephen shook his head, amused despite himself.

“Becker doesn't seem so bad.”

Ryan just glared at him. “Come on, work to do.”

“Yes, sir, Captain Ryan sir,” Stephen laughed. Perhaps today was going to be all right after all.

* * * * *

Stephen had to leave the ARC before the others returned from their call-out. It sounded like something involving a Stegosaurus, but Ryan had very deliberately banned him from the Atrium and he had to admit that that was probably for the best. He didn't need to worry about the team, they'd be fine. And much as he wanted to help, he couldn't. Not yet. Instead he'd spent the morning compiling budgets for the animals and working out some creative ways to get hundreds of tonnes of fruit by the Home Office; it reminded him of his days at the university and the creative accountancy he often had to employ when Cutter decided he really had to extend a palaeontological dig a couple more weeks.

He refused to pause outside of the hospital where his psychology appointment was, instead presenting himself to the receptionist ten minutes before his appointment was due; he was unsurprised to find that she was already running fifteen minutes late.

He made sure his phone was turned off, pulled out his book and settled down to read.

* * * * *

Caught up in a murder mystery despite himself it took two tries before the receptionist was able to get his attention.

“Dr King will see you now.”

Stephen fumbled with his book and hurriedly stood up. He smiled a little uncertainly at the receptionist and then went through the door she indicated.

“Stephen, so sorry to keep you.” Dr King, a tall woman with grey hair piled on top of her head extended her hand which Stephen shook automatically; she had a surprisingly strong grip. “Please, take a seat.”

Stephen chose one of the comfy chairs rather than the sofa and put his bag on the chair next to him.

“So,” Dr King began, “the first thing I should say is that I'm fully accredited with the Home Office and have top security clearance. I'm aware of how you sustained your injuries and the kind of work you do. It all sounds very exciting.”

“It has its moments,” Stephen replied, rubbing at his leg.

“I also went through your questionnaires – thank you for filling them in so fully. There are a number of areas you said you wanted to focus on, so I'd like to see which one you feel is holding you back the most.”

“Holding me back from what?”

“Living,” Dr King said, with a small shrug. She pulled her notebook closer to her and settled into her chair.

“You think I'm stuck?” Stephen asked.

“I think that's what you think,” she replied. “Now, why might I have that impression?”

Stephen looked at the bookshelves behind her head rather than trust himself to look at her face. He had promised himself, and Lester, that he would be honest about his feelings with her but opening up didn't come easily to him. It never had.

“I'm thinking of resigning,” he said instead of answering her question. Or maybe that was the answer and he just didn't know it yet.

“What's keeping you from going ahead with it?”

“I'm trying to see if I still have a place at the ARC.”

“And what will tell you that you have?”

“If Cutter...” Stephen trailed off.

“So Cutter's forgiveness will be the catalyst? Is that all?”

“Of course not,” Stephen said. “If my physio doesn't go well...” He trailed off, wondering if she had access to everything in his medical files. If she did she'd know that although his physiotherapist thought he was pushing himself too hard, he didn't think a full recovery was going to be a problem.

“Are you worried about your physical recovery?”

“...No.”

“So you're worried about Cutter?”

“I'm always worried about Cutter.”

“Why is that?”

“He's...” Stephen shrugged and moved his hand in a way that tried, and failed, to encompass all the things Cutter was.

Dr King shifted in her seat, crossing and then uncrossing her legs. “When did Cutter become your responsibility?”

“I slept with his wife,” Stephen said. It was still a hard thing to admit, but in for a penny...

“I don't imagine many other men would feel so responsible for their lover's husband. Why do you?”

“Obviously I feel guilty about what I did.” He took a deep breath. This was what he'd been building up to talking about and now the moment was here he wasn't sure that he could actually go through with it.

After a minutes silence Dr King leaned forward. “You talk a lot about guilt and obviously you feel bad for what you did to Cutter, but the affair isn't the only thing you feel guilty about it, is it?”

Stephen shook his head.

“Stephen, I can't help you if you aren't honest. If not with me, then with yourself.”

Stephen nodded. He knew this already. Knowing it and saying it out loud however...

“I feel...I feel guilty about betraying Helen.” There, he'd said it.

“And how do you feel you betrayed her?”

“I – I could have - I could have gone with her, when she asked me to go through the anomaly with her. That's when it all started to go wrong.”

“It didn't go wrong before that?”

“Well, I mean...” Stephen stopped., confused. He'd been trying to find a way to form the words and it still seemed like he was failing. Failing Helen. “I know, in my head I know it's ridiculous. That Helen was manipulative and...but in my _heart_...I still feel like if only I could have been what she wanted, none of this would ever have happened.”

“Have you told anyone else how you feel?”

“No,” Stephen said, immediately. “They wouldn’t understand.”

“Is there anyone you feel you _can_ talk to?”

Stephen paused. Once he would have said Cutter without hesitation but, well, that had never really been true, had it? He'd always been lying to Cutter if only by omission.

“I've never been honest with anyone, have I?” Stephen said, as the realisation started to sink in.

“How about yourself?” Dr King prodded. “Have you been honest with yourself?”

“No,” Stephen said. “No, I don't suppose I have. I thought I was being honest, listing my faults but...that's not the same as fixing them though, is it?”

“Do you feel like you need to be fixed?”

“Isn't that why I'm here?”

“You tell me.”

Stephen huffed a small laugh. This whole thing seemed even more absurd now than it had when he'd agreed to it. Back then he'd said yes to therapy just to get everyone off his back. He thought a few sessions would be enough to have him okayed to get back to work in the field. Because after all there was nothing wrong with him.

“Do you ever wake up and feel like the universe is playing out one massive joke at your expense?” Stephen asked. Dr King said nothing, just watched him with a quiet interest that Stephen was beginning to find quite soothing. “Things haven't really been right for a while now. Long before Helen probably if I'm honest.”

“And have you given any thought to how you might proceed from here?”

“I was planning on quitting the ARC,” Stephen said again, voice wavering a little as he spoke.

“And doing what?”

Stephen blinked. “I...I'll find something.”

Dr King nodded and then leaned forward. “My job here isn't to tell you what to do. Or what not to do. Those are the kind of decisions you have to make for yourself. But you've been through a lot, not just physically. You need time to come to terms with that, as well as the actions which you believe lead you there. In some cases a complete change is called for. But if you just take your original problems with you, that's not really a solution, is it?”

“Fix me, then fix my life, is that what you're saying doctor?”

“How do you feel about the idea?”

“Do you actually sit an exam in how to answer questions with other questions?” Stephen asked, but he was smiling. Dr King sat back in her chair and raised an eyebrow. “Okay, okay. Yes. That, makes sense. I suppose just up and leaving would be tantamount to running away.”

“Interesting that that's how you feel. In your self-assessment you placed not being afraid to have the hard conversations as a strength.”

“Guess that's something I'll need to work on then, isn't it?” He glanced at the clock on her desk. “We're just about out of time, aren't we?”

“I was running late,” Dr King reminded him, “you can have a bit longer if you’d like.”

“No, I think I'm good, thank you.”

“All right, Stephen. I think we've made a good start here. Same time next week?”

Stephen nodded. “Yeah, I think that will be good. Thank you again.”

He shook her hand and, after confirming his next appointment with the receptionist, headed back to his car. He had a lot to think about.

* * * * *

It took Stephen thirty minutes to compose himself in his car before he felt ready to drive again, but just before he did he remembered that he hadn't turned his phone back on and decided to see if there was any news on the anomaly shout.

He was surprised to find 6 voice mails from Ryan, 4 from Jenny, 2 from Lester and one each from Connor and Abby.

Rather than listening to them all Stephen decided to go direct to the source and rang Ryan.

“What's going on?” he asked.

“Cutter's missing,” Ryan replied, sounding out of breath. “Jenny left a message for him about the anomaly but he never showed up. We can't reach him on his phone. I'm at his house now. Hang on...”

Stephen waited, anxiously turning the key in the ignition.

“...Stephen, you need to get here. The whole bloody place has been turned over.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Wednesday – Continued**

Stephen had barely parked his car before he was running into Cutter's house, resolutely ignoring the pain to his leg and back. He found Ryan standing in the kitchen. 

“Tell me this is normal for Cutter,” Ryan said. 

Stephen looked around. Cutter's office might have been like this, a sort of chaotic organisation where his preoccupations were given full flight and he only taught to get access to the digs he wanted to explore, but his home had always been a relative sea of calm, not entirely spotless but not a mess either, certainly not like this. 

Tables and chairs were knocked over. The fridge magnets were all scattered about the floor and there was a broken pane of glass in the back door. 

Stephen shook his head and moved into the living room, Ryan right behind him. 

“This is definitely not normal, not even for Cutter,” he said. The living room was even worse than the kitchen, items of furniture smashed and knocked over, paintings off walls, bookshelves and their scattered contents lying upturned all around the room. And a woman's shoe in the middle of the floor. 

Stephen moved over to it and frowned. “This is Sarah's,” he said. “She was wearing them the other day.”

“Are you sure?” Ryan asked. 

Stephen nodded. “Yeah, they're new. See this mark? She was complaining that she'd only had them a day and already they were damaged. Has anyone seen her today?”

“It's supposed to be her day off,” Ryan said, pulling out his phone. “Lorraine? Ryan. I need someone to check on Sarah's whereabouts....Yeah, yeah, her too. Cutter's place has been turned over...I don't know...I don't know...Look, I don't know that either, can you just...thank you.”

Stephen and Ryan looked at each other. 

“Helen?” Ryan said. 

Stephen sighed. “I don't know who else would cause this kind of destruction. I just don't know why she would kidnap him, or Sarah for that matter.”

“Fucking hell, Stephen,” Ryan muttered. Stephen silently agreed with him. 

“I'll check upstairs,” Stephen said. 

“Right...Try not to touch anything.”

Stephen hesitated in the doorway. “You're thinking of calling in the police?”

“Considering what we're dealing with, I think we'll handle this ourselves. But we might need to get a forensics team out here anyway. I'm sure Jenny can swing it....Ah, talk of the devil.”

Stephen looked out of the living room window in time to see Jenny screeching into a halt in front of the house and jumping out, followed by Captain Becker who had a face like thunder. 

“Great,” Ryan muttered under his breath. 

“Where is he?” Jenny asked, rushing into the house and then stopping as she saw the state of the living room. “Oh my god.”

“I'll check upstairs,” Stephen said again, looking towards Ryan who nodded at him. Better for Ryan to explain what little they knew, Stephen was feeling a bit too sick to the stomach to want to face Jenny just yet. 

The bedroom was the first place Stephen headed. The bed was messy, as if slept in, but otherwise clean and tidy. The spare bedroom, where Stephen had spent many a night, didn't look like it had been used in months. The bathroom was tidy, and the seat was down on the toilet which confirmed that Sarah had been there. 

But nowhere did there appear to be a clue as to what had happened. Just in case Stephen checked the wardrobes and under the bed, and found Cutter's suitcase still there, as it had always been. 

“Anything?” Jenny asked, walking up the stairs more slowly than she had first arrived. 

“Nothing that I can see,” Stephen replied. He thought about the destruction downstairs and shook his head. “I can't see Helen making that much mess downstairs on her own, not even with Cutter and Sarah fighting back.”

“That’s Becker's assessment,” Jenny agreed. “He says there are several boot prints in the garden. Military boot prints.”

“Military?” Stephen asked. “What the hell is going on?”

“I don't know. But Lester is going to have kittens.”

Stephen moved over to the window and looked out at the street. It had always seemed like such a lovely place to live and the neighbours were...

“I'm just going to pop in and see the lady next door,” Stephen told Jenny. “Eyes like a hawk.”

“Do you want me to come with you?”

“Couldn't hurt,” Stephen agreed. 

They headed downstairs and decided not to interrupt the strange staring competition Becker and Ryan were engaged in, rather going straight to the next door house and knocking on the door. Immediately it was opened by a grey haired woman with wire rimmed spectacles and a definite twinkle in her eyes. 

“Stephen, what a handsome boy you are,” she said, immediately leaning up to pinch Stephen's cheek. Behind him he could hear Jenny stifling a reaction by turning away and coughing. 

“Mrs Vertue, I wasn't sure you'd recognise me.”

“Of course I do. And is this your...”

“Jenny Lewis,” Jenny said, extending her hand. “A colleague of Stephen’s and Nick Cutter. We were wondering if you'd seen him lately?”

“Nick? He popped round yesterday for a cup of tea. Such a good boy.”

Jenny looked amused at the description, despite the seriousness of the situation. 

“And did you notice anything today? Any noises or...?”

“Oh, you mean the shouting? Yes, well, one doesn't like to pry...”

Stephen and Jenny exchanged hopeful glances. “But...?” Stephen prompted. 

“Well, it was that nasty woman he married, wasn't it? I'd know her screeching anywhere. I expect it was finding him with that young woman that did it. Sent her over the rails. Though how she can talk when she's been gone for years. He thought she was dead, can you imagine? And then just turning up and him with some new woman. Mind you, she did look to be quite a bit younger, but then that's men for you, isn't it dear?” 

Jenny looked a little flustered. “I – um, well...”

“She's another colleague,” Stephen said. “What time was the shouting, do you know?”

“Oh yes dear, just after the 10 o'clock news started last night. That lovely Huw Edwards was on. I do so like listening to his voice. So soothing I always find, no matter what horrible thing he's telling you about.”

“Right,” Stephen tried to interrupt. “And there was shouting? Just Helen or...”

“Oh, Nicholas was giving as good as he got, I thought. Never one to back down from an argument is he? I remember when the bin men put a dint in his car. Language like that I haven't heard since...”

“Did you happen to see if he went out with Helen?” Jenny interrupted. “Car doors slamming or...”

“Oh, I don't know dear, I don't like to pry. Now, Mr Drury, he's the one that likes looking out of the window. Claims to be bird watching. Bird watching, I ask you, from a ground floor window onto the street. We've barely got any trees along here now. Not since the council decided...”

“And which number does Mr Drury live at?” Stephen asked. He was trying not to be sharp with her but his leg was hurting and he really wanted to sit down. 

“37. Look, there he is,” she said, and nodded towards the house directly opposite. Stephen could just see the twitch of a curtain and a figure retreating back into the distance. “Nosy bugger.”

Jenny coughed to cover a surprised laugh. “Well, thank you, very much. We'll let you get on.”

They extricated themselves as politely as they could, and headed across the road. Just as they approached the door was opened by a man who looked to be in his forties, much younger than Stephen had been expecting. He was wearing an apron that said “Kiss the Cook” and looked to have spilled a good amount of flour down himself. 

“Just caught me in the middle of baking!” he said before they'd quite finished walking up the path. 

Stephen looked over at Jenny and raised an eyebrow. Jenny managed to look both bemused and ready for battle and Stephen decided to leave the talking to her for the moment. 

“Mr Drury? Jenny Lewis, Home Office.” She flashed her badge and carried on talking even as Drury's expression started to shut down. “I understand you may have been witness to a crime last night, regarding Nick Cutter. He lives just over there.”

“I know who he is,” Drury said, a bit too quickly for Stephen’s liking. 

“I see. And last night...”

“Look, it's not illegal. I checked. What I do on my own property, is my business.”

That made Jenny pause. “I'm sorry?”

“It''s not like its pornography.”

“Right.” Jenny frowned. “What isn't?”

“You better come in.” He stepped away from the door and went further into his house. Jenny and Stephen watched him with a sinking feeling. 

“Do we need backup?” Stephen asked. He looked over the road and saw Ryan standing in the doorway, talking on his phone. 

“He looks harmless enough,” Jenny said. They looked at each other for a moment. “Yeah, you’re right.” She waved over at Ryan, and pointed towards the house, then her watch. Ryan nodded that he'd understood she wanted rescuing if they didn’t come out in five minutes and then she and Stephen followed after Mr Drury.

“Bloody hell,” Stephen muttered as they entered the living room. Or what in anyone else's house would be a living room. Here it looked like some sort of IT hub with computers, and video cameras the length and breadth of the room. 

“I'm making a documentary,” Drury said. 

“ A documentary?” Jenny asked. She moved over to one of the monitors and pushed the desk with her hip. The picture paused on the screen was that of a young woman in her bra. 

“It's a history of the street. A normal, modern street. And if someone wants to walk around in full view of the street with their top off, then who am I to....” He trailed off. 

“Do you have a tape from last night, around 10pm?” Stephen asked, voice clipped to keep his anger in check. Once they'd got what they came for they'd be calling the appropriate authorities, but right now they needed to concentrate on finding out what had happened to Cutter and Sarah. 

“I'll make you a copy,” Drury said, suddenly even more eager to help. 

“Let's have a look first,” Stephen said, voice brooking no argument. 

Drury shuffled over to one of the computer stations and began pressing buttons. Stephen kept an eye on exactly what he was doing, just in case he decided to start deleting things. 

“Everything okay in here?” Ryan asked, and Stephen nearly jumped out of his skin; he hadn't heard the other man come in. 

“Mr Drury here is an amateur documentary maker,” Jenny said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “He's about to show us the film from last night.”

“Uh huh,” Ryan said, demonstrating in no words at all exactly what he thought about that. 

Drury looked even more shifty as he pressed play and started to move around towards the back of the room. Ryan very deliberately opened his jacket to reveal he was armed and Drury froze where he was. 

Stephen ignored him to move forward and watch the video. It showed Helen and the arrival of several men with their faces covered, dressed in black. They forced their way inside the house and although there was no sound, Stephen could well imagine Cutter's reaction. Then Cutter and Sarah were led out by two men each and piled into separate cars that drove off at speed. 

Stephen shifted to the side as Ryan put a hand on his arm and moved him gently out of the way. 

“Gotcha,” Ryan said. He pulled out his mobile but stayed close to Stephen as he talked. “Danny, I've got a number plate I need you to run...yes....no, not yet...”

Stephen zoned out as Ryan talked. He'd been standing too long and his back and legs now felt like they were on fire. But there was no way he was going to tell anyone else that. Not when Cutter's life was at stake. 

“What's going on?” Becker asked, and Stephen could swear he heard Drury say, “not another one” before Ryan glared in his direction. 

“Got a potential lead,” Ryan said. 

“All right, I'll take it from here.”

“You what?” Ryan asked. 

“Boys...” Jenny said. “Not in front of the civilian.”

Becker turned on his heels and left. Ryan took possession of Drury's tapes and followed him. 

“Someone will be in touch Mr Drury,” Jenny said, before taking Stephen's arm and walking out with him. 

“I don't need help,” Stephen said. 

“You're a terrible liar, Stephen,” Jenny replied. She didn’t have the chance to say anything more as they walked smack bang into Ryan and Becker's continuing argument. 

“Your position is at the ARC. I'll take point on finding Cutter.”

“I know what my bloody position is,” Ryan replied. He looked over at Stephen and took a deep breath. “I'll take Stephen back to the ARC and coordinate the search from there.”

“Wh-” Stephen started to speak but Jenny squeezed his arm hard enough that he actually hissed in pain. Which didn't really go towards convincing anyone that he was fine. 

“Right,” Becker said, clearly unprepared for Ryan to give in so easily. “I'll get going. Ms Lewis?”

“I'm coming with you. You two, stay out of trouble.”

Stephen watched her and Becker disappear into their car with a sinking heart. If he hadn't been injured, if he hadn't trusted Helen, Cutter would never have been in a position where he needed saving. 

“Don't,” Ryan said. 

“Don't...”

“I know what you're thinking. This is not your fault. Now come on, we can still make ourselves useful back at base. And somebody needs to fill Lester in.”

“Not it,” Stephen said with a slow smile. 

Ryan laughed. “Is that a sense of humour I spy before me? Now, can you make it to the car yourself or do I need to carry you?”

“Don't you dare,” Stephen said, and he started a slow walk back to his car, only to have Ryan steer him towards Ryan's car. “Tom...”

“Just do as you're told for once.”

Stephen didn't argue. It was strange, but he never seemed to mind Ryan looking out for him. It was everyone else's attention that seemed to set his teeth on edge. Maybe it was just because Ryan could do it without making Stephen feel like he was a failure for acknowledging his weaknesses. 

He sensed another topic for his shrink coming up. 

* * * * *

The drive back to the ARC was conducted largely while talking to Danny on the phone. He'd got his police contacts to trace the number plate, which had come up as stolen, to no one's surprise, and now Connor was doing something Stephen suspected was highly illegal in order to track their route through speed and traffic cameras. As soon as they had a destination Becker and a team would be heading out there. 

“Give me the phone,” Lester could be heard saying in the background and Ryan took his eyes momentarily off the road to grin grimly at Stephen. 

“Sir?” Ryan asked after a few moments that sounded suspiciously like Danny and Lester struggling for possession of the phone. 

“I want you back here as soon as possible,” Lester said. “If this is some ploy to attack the ARC I want security to be locked up tight. God knows what that mad woman is plotting this time. I want her stopped and I don't care how it's done. Neither does the PM.”

“The Prime Minister?” Stephen asked, incredulous. 

“She's considered a threat to the Crown,” Lester said. “Do what's necessary, Captain.”

The car became eerily silent after Lester had hung up. Stephen looked over at Ryan, but Ryan didn't so much as glance at him. 

“You wouldn't?” Stephen said, once the imposing form of the ARC was in view. 

“I'll do what I have to to protect civilians,” Ryan said. “Or are you forgetting that we've both nearly died because of Helen? After all this time you can't really believe she gives a damn about you?”

“Of course not,” Stephen replied automatically. Ryan snorted in disbelief and they didn't exchange another word until they had reached the parking garage. 

“I don't think she ever loved me,” Stephen said in a very quiet voice, just before Ryan moved to get out of the car. Ryan paused and then sank back into his seat, finally looking over at Stephen. 

“Therapy's a good look on you.”

Stephen was startled into a laugh. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Come on, let's go find this idiot friend of yours.”

* * * * * 

The ARC was in a muted state of chaos, with Lester glaring at anyone who stopped moving for more than 20 seconds. Lorraine was just cajoling him to his office with the promise of coffee when Connor jumped up from the ADD with a whoop of joy, and then promptly managed to kick his chair away from him and land on the floor. 

Unfazed he jumped straight up again. “Found them!” he shouted. “I've found them!”

Everyone crowded around the ADD where a big red X was flashing over a map location outside of London. 

“Subtle, Connor,” Abby muttered. Connor just grinned at her. 

“Send the coordinates to our phones,” Becker said. “All right men, let's get moving”. 

Becker's squad of men in black walked, rather than ran, out of the room. Abby, Jenny and Connor all started after them. Becker looked like he was going to argue and then decided against it. 

“Do you want to go over the security plans for the ARC, Captain Ryan?” Lorraine asked. Ryan, who was still staring after Becker's retreating back, didn’t answer. 

“Ryan,” Stephen said, touching Ryan's arm. “We need to go over the ARC plans.”

Ryan visibly composed himself. “Right, yes, Lorraine, lead the way.”

* * * * * 

Stephen sat in with the security planning as long as he could but it had been a long day, mentally and physically and he was completely wrung out. He tried to stay alert and then he tried to argue with Lorraine when she suggested he go get some rest. He might even have won the argument if Lester hadn't ordered him to get some sleep, backed up by Ryan who threatened to put him over his shoulder. 

Reluctantly Stephen headed to the dormitories, not expecting to be able to get any sleep. Instead he was out like a light the minute his head hit the pillow. 

**Thursday**

Stephen woke with a sudden start from a dream where fire instead of raptors was licking at his back. He shifted awkwardly and cursed as the pain made his stomach churn. He blinked several times and then checked his watch – 5.30am. 

Sighing he waited a few moments and tried to filter out any unusual background sounds. He'd bunked down in his usual bed in the dormitory reserved for the civilian staff – one of three rooms with six beds in each – not expecting to do any more than lie there for a few minutes to prove to the others that he'd tried to get some rest. He was half pleased that he had managed to get some sleep, and half annoyed that his body had so neatly betrayed his need for it. There was a time when he'd been able to pull an all-nighter no matter what the world was throwing at him. Maybe he was just getting old. 

He went to check his phone for messages but it was dead. 

“Damn it,” Stephen muttered. He forced himself to get up, moving his neck and stretching his legs out. He had a series of physical exercises he was supposed to do each morning but he'd left his spare instructions in his locker by the Gym. He'd go see what was happening with Cutter via the Gym, though surely if something had happened someone would have come and found him. 

He stopped off in the bathroom to splash his face with water and try to get his hair to stop resembling a bird's nest without actually looking in the mirror. Then he headed to the locker room finding the silence a little disconcerting – where the hell was everybody?

He paused and then slowly turned around. Nothing there. He must be imagining things. The stress of the week was clearly getting to him. He turned back towards the locker room, determined to find his physio exercise and then head up to the Atrium. 

He turned around quickly again – definitely a sound that time. 

“Cutter?” he asked, surprised to find the other man standing before him. “When did you -” Then he noticed the gun in Cutter's hands and couldn't have been more surprised. What the hell was he doing with a gun? “Cutter – Nick, I know we haven't been seeing eye to eye lately, but trust me, shooting me isn't the answer.”

Stephen moved his hands up slowly, trying not to spook Cutter while he thought of something he could do or say to have this all make sense. He didn't seriously believe that Cutter would shoot him, but even so, the first rule of a supposedly loaded weapon was that you didn't point it at anyone you didn't fully expect to shoot. 

“Nick, please just talk to me. Where have you been?”

Stephen took a step forward, just as the gun went off. 

His reflexes were just a hair slower these days than they had been before, his joints stiff and uncooperative. So it was a good thing that Ryan appeared form nowhere, rugby tackling Cutter to the ground so that the bullet whizzed high above Stephen's head, even as he dropped to the floor in an uncoordinated heap. 

“Stephen!” Lorraine shouted, rushing into the doorway. “Are you all right?”

Stephen took a moment to answer, trying to catalogue if any of his aches and pains felt particularity new. 

“I'm okay, I think.”

He looked over to his right where Ryan was now sitting on Cutter's back, holding his arms down. 

“What the hell is going on?” he asked as Lorraine helped him to his feet. He staggered a little into her and she carefully pushed him into a chair. He didn't argue, just stretched his right leg as best he could and tried to remember to breath. 

“One of the cleaners let them in. But they weren't expecting Ryan and his men to be waiting for them.”

“I had men posted outside, doing surveillance, so when the cameras went down we weren't actually blind,” Ryan explained. 

Stephen blinked. “When who came in?”

“Helen, Cutter and a bunch of men that look bloody identical.” Ryan shifted his position and handcuffed Cutter's hands behind his back. “I don’t know what got into Cutter but he headed off like a man possessed – punched one of my best men in the face before he had time to blink and high tailed it out of the parking lot while the rest of us were dealing with Helen and her goons”.

“He tried to shoot me,” Stephen said, as if the reality were only just now becoming apparent. “He nearly shot me.”

Ryan looked up at him and raised an eyebrow. “Whatever you do, don't you dare throw up on me.”

“I'm not...” Stephen started to say, but actually he _was_ feeling a little queasy. 

Lorraine grabbed a bin and put it near his feet. “Use that,” she said, and patted him gently on the back. 

Stephen looked at the bin, considered whether preserving his dignity was really worth it, and then emptied the contents of his stomach. 

“Get up,” Ryan said to Cutter, hauling him up easily with one arm. The minute Cutter was on his feet he lunged again at Stephen, and Lorraine had to intervene this time, kicking him neatly in the groin. 

“Lorraine,” Ryan said, quiet but firm, “we don't assault people when they're handcuffed.”

Lorraine shrugged, but stepped out of the way, taking up what Stephen recognised as a protective stance over him. He'd have been quite touched if he wasn’t worried about throwing up on her shoes. 

Ryan sighed and started taking Cutter outside. “Helen and the others are in the cells. I'll take him to join them.”

“Cells?” Stephen queried 

“Spare storage rooms,” Lorraine said. “We haven't got around to putting anything in them yet.”

“Right,” Stephen said. “Could I get some water?”

“Oh, of course,” Lorraine said, moving off to do just that. Stephen watched Ryan pull Cutter out of the room. Stephen had never seen Cutter with such a blank look on his face before, like he wasn't really seeing what was in front of him. Stephen couldn't explain it. 

He took a long drink of the water Lorraine gave him and tried to get his thoughts together. 

“What the hell is going on?” he asked. 

Lorraine looked just as confused as Stephen felt. “I don't know, Stephen. I don't know what is happening. Becker's still out and we have no idea where Sarah is in all of this...”

Stephen got up with a grimace and waved off Lorraine's attempt to help him stand. “We need to get to the Atrium”.

“Okay, but if you think I'm not going to help you get there, you're out of your little mind.”

Having seen what Lorraine could do if roused, Stephen decided it was probably safer if he just let Lorraine do what she wanted. 

They walked slowly back to the Atrium, Stephen not thinking about anything other than putting one foot in front of the other. 

“Lorraine! Where the hell are you!” Lester screamed and Lorraine and Stephen hurried up and entered the room into chaos, as soldiers and civilians milled about, clearing up the mess from Helen's incursion. One civilian scientist was having her arm bandaged and another was holding a towel to his head to stem the flow of blood. Some of Ryan's men had cut lips and bruises and even Lester looked like he'd been involved in the scuffle, judging by the way his shirt had been ripped. 

“Are you all right?” Lorraine asked, hurrying over to Lester once she'd made sure that Stephen could stand on his own two feet. 

“Do I look all right?” 

Lorraine wisely didn't respond. “What can I do?”

“We've lost communications with Becker's team in the field. Make that your first priority.”

“Got it,” Lorraine said and moved off to her workstation. 

“Where do you need me?” Stephen asked. He didn't limp as he walked over to Lester but it was a close call. 

“Do you think it likely that Cutter has been working with Helen all this time?”

“Not for a second,” Stephen replied. 

“Yes, well, me neither,” Lester said, shaking his head in disbelief. “Do you think you can talk to him, find out what's going on in that cotton wool filled brain of his?”

“I don't know,” Stephen said. “I've never seen him like this before. It's almost like he was...possessed.”

“Dinosaurs are bad enough, I don't need demonic possession added into the mix thank you very much,” Lester snapped. 

“Sir!” Lorraine called out, “I've got Becker on the radio....He says Sarah and Cutter are safe.”

_“What?”_

“That's what he says sir, that Cutter's with him. Bruised, but fine.” Lorraine held out the radio and Lester tentatively took it from her, as if he thought it was about to bite him. 

“Captain Becker, can you see Cutter right now?”

“...yes, sir, he's right here. Do you want to talk to him?”

“Yes. Put him on.”

“Lester, what's going on? Do you know where Helen is?”

Stephen and Lester stared at each other a moment, before then turning to stare at the radio. 

“If that's Cutter, who the hell are we holding in custody?” Lester asked. 

“I don't...I don't know,” Stephen replied. “I'm going to talk to Ryan.”

“Right. Cutter, I need you all back here ASAP. There's been some developments.”

Stephen left Lester to explain, as best he could, what was happening, and went to find Ryan. 

Stephen found him giving instructions to one of the new soldiers transferred from his old regiment, an imposting black woman called Moira Spencer who was in possession of the filthiest laugh Stephen had ever heard. Not that she was laughing now, her face so set in stone that Stephen almost took a step back when Spencer looked over at him. 

“Silly bugger hasn't said a word,” Spencer told him. 

“Right,” Stephen replied, and then hesitated. “So, that might not be Cutter.”

“You what?” Ryan asked. 

“We just spoke to him. Becker found him and Sarah. They're fine.”

“You what?” Ryan repeated. 

“Then who the fuck am I guarding in here?” Spencer asked, motioning towards the cupboard door. 

Stephen shrugged. “I thought we might want to try asking him.”

Without saying another word Ryan opened the door and marched inside. They'd put the Cutter-a-like in one of the bigger storage cupboards, and handcuffed him to the lower rung of one of the shelves so he was sitting fairly comfortably on the floor. As soon as Stephen followed Ryan into the room he pulled at his wrists, as if trying to form a fist, and then apparently gave it up as a bad job. The movement wasn't lost on any of them. 

“What's your name?” Ryan asked the man. 

“Nick Cutter.”

“And what's my name?”

The man looked at Ryan with confused eyes, then shook his head. “Don't know.”

Stephen moved forward a little and the man's expression changed to one of pure hatred. 

“What's my name?” Stephen asked. 

“Stephen Hart,” the man answered without hesitation. 

“And what do you want with me?”

“You have to die,” he said, without emotion.

“Why?” Stephen asked. 

“To protect the future.”

“The future? What future?”

“You're going to destroy us all,” the man said in lieu of an answer. 

Stephen turned back to look at Ryan and Spencer, who was scribbling into her notebook. 

“Who told you this?”

“Helen. She's seen it. The damage you being here does. You should have died in the cage room. That's what should have happened. You ruin everything.”

Stephen found himself recoiling as if slapped. He knew now for certain that this wasn't his Nick Cutter speaking. No matter how bad things had got between them, his Nick would never look at him like that. 

He felt Spencer move up behind him. “Stephen,” she said, “why don't we finish up outside?”

Stephen nodded and started to move away, suddenly aware that his hands were balled into fists. Whether he wanted to punch the man in front of him or Helen though, was up for debate. 

The three of them stepped outside the make shift cell and Spencer re-secured the door, placing herself in front of it. 

“I need to talk to Helen,” Stephen said. She was at the heart of things. She was always at the heart of things where it concerned him and Nick. He doubted now that that was ever going to change. 

“Ten minutes,” Ryan agreed, without the argument Stephen had been expecting. “Spencer, not a word.”

Spencer nodded at them and they moved off further down the corridor. 

“We put her in here,” Ryan said, motioning towards another room with a soldier standing guard outside it. “Do you have any idea what you're going to say?”

“I thought I'd see what inspiration struck,” Stephen admitted. 

Ryan gave him a sceptical look. “I'm sure that's the way to play this.”

“Well what would you suggest?”

Ryan thought for a moment. “How about I tell her you're dead, and we move from there.”

Stephen felt like a cold bucket of water had been emptied down his spine. He'd come so close to death, and fought so hard to survive, and here he was being dead all over again. 

Ryan, as if sensing what he was thinking, placed a hand on his arm and squeezed. “Whatever happens, I am not letting that woman get away again.”

Stephen leaned into the contact for a beat too long and Ryan looked at him like, well, Stephen didn't want to go there, not right now. 

The sound of shifting fabric reminded them both that they weren't actually alone in the corridor, and although Ryan's men were always discreet, this was perhaps pushing things a bit too far. 

Ryan stepped back first, and Stephen couldn't tell whether it was just his imagination or if he looked a little disappointed. 

“Whatever she says, she can't hurt you,” Ryan said, and then turned and signalled for the soldier guarding the door to open it. Stephen stepped to one side so that Helen wouldn't see him and as Ryan moved inside he kept the door open a fraction, so that Stephen could hear what was going on. 

“Well if it isn't the littlest soldier,” Helen said. “Still in one piece?”

“No thanks to you,” Ryan replied. Stephen heard the shifting of furniture and presumed that Ryan was sitting down. 

“I'm not responsible for the actions of wild animals.”

“But you are responsible for kidnap, infiltrating the ARC by force, and the death of Stephen Hart.”

“Oh, is Stephen dead?” Helen asked. Stephen could hear the smile in her voice, and it made him feel sick to the core. How the hell had he ever imagined himself in love with that woman?

“That's what you wanted, isn't it? For Cutter to kill Stephen.”

“It was necessary,” Helen replied, sounding supremely pleased with herself. 

“Why? What possible harm could Stephen do?”

“Stephen not dying when he should have is the reason for the future's downfall,” Helen said. “He leads the ARC to become more publicly accountable, which leads to a take over by private enterprise, which leads to a very devious man using the ARC's resources to harness the power of the anomalies for his own gain, thereby leading to the overthrow of humanity.”

“You can't be serious.”

“The future is just another country, Captain.”

“The future isn't set in stone. All those things you claim are going to happen, could still happen even with Stephen dead.”

“Or they could never happen.”

“And Cutter? What did you do to him?”

There was a long silence and Stephen's fingers twitched, wanting to open the door and see what expression was on her face. 

“He's dispensable,” she finally said. 

“You really don't care about anyone but yourself, do you?”

“Survival of the fittest.” 

“I'd tell you exactly what you were fit for, but my mother taught me better.”

Helen gave a humourless sort of laugh, the one Stephen recognised as a pre-cursor to ripping an opponent to (metaphorical) shreds. 

“You found them didn't you, you clever little boy.”

“The real Nick Cutter and Sarah Page are safe, yes,” Ryan agreed. “So who killed Stephen?”

“That's my little protégée. I call him Nicholas. Marvellous isn't he? Much more pliable than my husband. Anatomically correct, of course.”

“What is he?”

“A clone. I borrowed the technology from the future. It was easy to get a scientist in the future to grow him in a lab for me. And no problem at all to get some of Nick's DNA.”

“And you needed Cutter out of the way to make your plan work?”

“I wasn't expecting you to find he was missing quite so quickly, so score one for you I suppose. And of course Sarah was just inconvenient. I'd have dumped her by the side of the road, but Nick did fuss so about her. Between you and me, I think he's a little sweet on her.”

There was the sound of a chair scraping across the floor. 

“You won't be doing any travelling for a very long time,” Ryan said. Stephen could hear the tremble of anger in his voice and knew exactly how he felt. 

“I've seen the future, Captain. There's no cage that can contain me.”

“We'll bloody well see about that.”

Ryan moved out of the door and slammed it shut behind him, cutting off whatever response Helen may have had. 

“She gets out, I’m having your head, understood?” Ryan told the soldier on guard. 

“Sir, yes sir,” was the prompt reply. 

Ryan turned to where Stephen was leaning against the wall. 

“You know what Hart? You have got terrible taste in women.”

Stephen chuckled. “Me and Cutter both,” he replied. 

“Speaking of...” Ryan said, voice tailing off as they heard Cutter's distinctive brogue shouting from half way down the corridor. 

“I want to see her! Right this bloody minute!”

“Do not raise your voice at me,” Lester said, a steel in his voice that didn’t bode well for any one of them. “Helen Cutter is going to stay where she is until the police get here.”

“Police?” Cutter shouted. “Police! I'll give her police...”

Stephen suddenly found he was laughing, doubling over and gripping his sides as Cutter's voice washed over him. He could feel Ryan watching him and looked up to see Ryan was looking amused and a little baffled. 

“I -” Stephen started to say, but gave up for want of any actual words that would make sense. 

Ryan moved over to the wall next to him and nudged their shoulders together. “Odd day, eh?”

Stephen nodded his agreement, and only started laughing some more. How had he got them into this mess? How had he got all of them into this mess, when it came down to it? If he'd met Nick first instead of Helen, his life and that of everyone else at the ARC would have been very different. 

Ryan started chuckling next to him and Stephen found he rather liked the sound, wouldn't mind hearing it more often, in fact. 

He couldn't imagine how it looked when Cutter and Lester came across the pair of them, laughing and using the wall to keep themselves upright, but at least it stopped Cutter talking for more than five minutes. 

**Epilogue**

It took a while to get everybody back together in the same place at the same time. Jenny insisted that Cutter and Sarah were properly examined by the medical team (Sarah had a broken ankle, Cutter had an impressively purple bruise along his right cheek). Becker had apparently had enough of the incompetence of his soldiers who hadn't stopped Helen and her men from leaving the site they'd been holding Sarah and Cutter and fired a bunch of them the minute they'd returned to the ARC. (He and Ryan bonded over assessing the new recruits). Abby had found herself in charge of more animals that Helen had been hoarding, and Stephen found himself wrangling creatures that had nearly been his downfall. Connor didn’t sleep for 2 days while re-wiring the ADD. Lester vanished to Westminster for three days and barely stopped working for a further three until Lorraine ordered him to sleep. 

But finally they were back in the conference room, all sitting around the table, all feeling much more buoyant than they had been the last time they'd been made to sit still. 

Stephen was trying not to smile too much, though it was hard to feel sombre when he knew that Helen Cutter was safely in police custody. She'd kicked up a fuss, of course, but the wind had been taken out of her sails when she'd come face to face with a very much alive Stephen. He'd be enjoying the look on her face for a very long time to come. 

And then there was whatever was going on between him and Ryan, which was another reason to smile. 

Ryan obviously thought so too, because he was clearly fighting a smile of his own and had deliberately chosen a seat directly opposite Stephen. 

Even Lester was looking appropriately smug with himself as he entered the room and nodded at Lorraine to start handing out the packs she had been cradling to her chest. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, if we could have some order please.”

There was much shifting of bums on seats and shuffling of papers until Lester's glare silenced everyone. 

“Thank you, children. Now, if you’ll take a look at the packs in front of you...”

Stephen flicked open his pack and frowned at the logo on the front. 

“We're being re-branded?” Jenny asked from next to Stephen. “Why wasn't I consulted on this?”

“It's just a temporary logo, and not important.”

“Not important?” Cutter interrupted. 

“Will you let me explain?” Lester snapped and Cutter made a “who me?” expression which nearly set Stephen off. 

“The Prime Minister has expressed his pleasure in the good work the ARC has been doing, especially the keeping the truth about the anomalies out of the news. They have decided that further funding would be amenable to the non-destruction of the country. Hence our re-branding. Which, yes, Jenny, you will be in charge of, this is just a mock-up I agreed to in order to get out of the PM's office with my sanity intact.”

Jenny immediately uncapped her pen and started making notes over the pack in front of her. 

“Does this funding have to be targeted, or can we distribute it as we see fit?” Becker asked. 

“You can't have a tank,” Lester replied, deadpan. 

“What's the catch?” Cutter asked, as everybody else tried to stifle a smile. 

“Read the briefing, Professor,” Lester said. “I have another meeting to get to and...”

The anomaly alarm started to blare, at least five times louder than it had previously. 

“Connor!” Lester shouted. 

“Sorry! Sorry, must have....” The rest of Connor's explanation was drowned out as he ran towards the Atrium, tripping over his shoelaces as he did so and only avoiding a head first dive down the ramp because Abby grabbed at the back of his jacket. 

“All right, get going!” Lester shouted and everybody moved towards their stations. 

Stephen looked over at Ryan who was still wincing at the alarms blare. They both still had a long way to go in their recovery before they'd be allowed out in the field with the others, but for now it looked like it was going to be business as usual. 

As Cutter gave Stephen's shoulder a friendly pat as he moved away, Stephen didn't think he could ask for much more than that.


End file.
